


Everybody has Bad Days

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [16]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Bad Days, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Movie Night, Pizza, Precious Peter Parker, Random & Short, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-07-12 13:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: Peter's had a rough day and tries to hide it from Tony.  That doesn't work out as he'd hoped but it turns out that Tony's comfort is exactly what he needed.





	Everybody has Bad Days

As Peter sat at his desk in the corner of Tony Stark's personal Lab, Peter laid his head down on his arms and quietly sniffed as he fought back the tears that were trying to accumulate in his eyes. The day had started out on a bad note and that had carried throughout the rest of the day. Even now things weren't going as they were supposed to. He'd been trying to fix one of his web-shooters but the screwdriver had slipped and jabbed into his hand. It hadn't even hurt so much as it was just frustrating and seemed to have been the proverbial straw on the camels back. 

Seeing as he was on the opposite side of the room from his mentor he allowed the disheartened tears to fall. Then by the time, his face was wet with emotion he heard footsteps heading his way. 

"Here, Look at this Pete. See what you think.", Tony called out as he crossed the room. He had seen that the boy had his head down but didn't think much of it until Peter rapidly sat himself up straight and started to furiously scrub at his face. "Kid?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. I...", Peter stuttered as he looked for the right excuse for blubbering like a toddler in the middle of their lab session. 'I'm having a really awful day and now I've stabbed myself with a screwdriver' didn't seem like a good enough reason to be as upset as he felt. "I have a headache.", he marginally lied. He did have a headache but it was still somewhat manageable. At this point, it was just another thing to add to his reasons why this was turning out to be the worst day ever.

Tony looked the kid over skeptically before placing a hand on his forehead. "Only a headache?", he asked as he tried to gauge how much of a headache the boy had to cause him to lay his head down and cry like that. Then again he probably wasn't supposed to have noticed the tear tracks. The kid had been adamantly trying to get rid of them before looking his way. "You need some medicine?" Peter nodded his head and Tony beckoned for him to follow. "Has it been hurting you all day?"

"No.", Peter said with a slight croak. Then clearing his throat he tried to explain further. "It started after lunch, Mr. Stark. I'm not sick."

Nodding in acknowledgment, Tony led the way towards the small bathroom that was connected to the lab. "Did you eat?", he asked as he tapped two pills into Peter's outstretched hand and started to fill a small paper cup with water.

"Mm-hmm.", Peter said as he quickly swallowed down the offered pain relievers wishing they would take away all of the hurt from the day and not the headache alone.

"You hungry now?", Tony asked with a smirk. He already knew the answer to that. Well, he hoped he did. The kid never missed an opportunity to eat unless he wasn't feeling well.

Peter smiled a shaky smile and laughed lightly. "Yeah. I'm always hungry, Mr. Stark.", he replied honestly. He was always hungry and he hadn't really eaten anything since lunch. Not even a snack after school as he normally would. 

"Alright. It's still early but we can go ahead and order some food if you want to.", Tony said with a smile before digging through a draw in the lab in search of a few menus to toss in the kid's direction. He always let Peter pick, though it tended to end up being pizza or Thai every time.

"Can you pick this time?", Peter asked, handing the menus back to his frowning mentor and walking towards the sitting area versus the workbench where he'd previously been seated.

"You always pick, kid. Are you sure?", the man asked and when Peter nodded without explanation he opted to have the AI repeat their order from the previous week. Two large pizzas and chicken wings apparently.

Before sitting down, Peter looked towards his mentor and shifted on his feet. He'd never asked for a break from working before but he just didn't feel up to it at the moment. It felt like if he tried to do anything else he would only mess it up further. "Can, can I sit on the couch or something, Mr. Stark? I think I'm done for now."

"Sure, kid.", Tony said in such a soft tone that he nearly didn't recognize his own voice but the kid sounded miserable. All he could think was that it must be one doozy of a headache to keep the kid from wanting to take full advantage of his lab. He tended to be a ball of unstoppable energy while in there. "You want to watch a movie or something?"

"Um... okay?", Peter replied in question. The man had never offered to let him watch movies before. Usually, they worked, ate dinner and then Happy drove Peter home. Then again, he'd never asked for any kind of a break before so maybe that's why it had never come up.

"Let's go upstairs then. Bigger TV, better couch.", Tony said with a smile before placing a hand on Peter's shoulder and guided him towards the elevator.

Peter wasn't exactly sure what to think when he was led into Tony's home. It was unbelievable enough that he was constantly being invited into the man's lab and now he was being offered a seat on the man's large cushy couch. "Um... thanks, Mr. Stark.", Peter offered as he sat down directly beside his mentor despite the fact that there was enough room for them to sit in the same room without brushing knees. Tony didn't seem to mind though. 

"What do you want to watch, kid?"

Sighing deeply, Peter laid his head back on the couch. "I don't know. Whatever you want is fine.", Peter said. It was almost like, having the man being nice to him was making him feel worse rather than better. 

That answer had surprised Tony. Usually, if nothing else, the kid was opinionated. "Kid's watch cartoons right?", Tony asked with a smirk in an attempt to get something of a rise out of the kid. He wasn't really sure what to do with a subdued Peter. However, when Peter didn't react he was left trying to wrack his brain for the name of any cartoon movie. "How about, uh...Peter Pan?"

"That's fine. I haven't seen that since I was like, six.", Peter replied without even batting an eye. 

Tony reluctantly started the movie and several minutes later went to go grab the food. Upon his return, he was slightly thrown off to see that Peter was once again, wiping surreptitiously at his eyes and cheeks. However, before he could call him out on it the kid was already starting to speak. "I need to use the bathroom, Mr, Stark. Do I need to go back downstairs?", the boy hesitantly asked as he stated downward towards his shoes. He didn't want to assume how much of his personal space the man actually wanted to share.

"There's one right down the hall there. First door.", Tony replied while watching with concern as the boy hurried away from him.

Once inside the bathroom, Peter looked in the mirror and growled at himself for being so stupid. It was one bad day and nothing disastrous had happened. There was literally nothing to cry about, yet there he was once again rubbing his eyes in an attempt to get them to stop watering. Once he felt like he had himself back under control, Peter flushed the toilet for show and washed his hands. By the time he returned, Tony had plates and sodas set out on the table along with the boxes of food and was smiling at him. "Ready to eat, now, Kiddo?"

_'Kiddo'_ , that was new. Tony had called him, Pete, Young Buck, Hotshot, and kid a thousand times over but he'd never called him something so... endearing. It almost made his heart swell but rather than reply he took a deep breath and nodded firmly in the positive. 

When no other words came out of the typically chattery boy's mouth Tony started to worry and he wasn't even sure why other than this just wasn't the kid he was used to. "Are you sure you're alright, Pete? You're being awfully quiet.", he finally asked once they were halfway through their meal and not one word had been uttered.

"I'm sorry.", Peter said already teetering on the edge of breaking down again and this time there was no escape. The man was right beside him and there wasn't anywhere else to pretend that he needed to go. 

When it sounded like the boy was once again on the verge of tears, Tony took a chance and wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders. "What's got you so down today, Kiddo?", the man said softly causing Peter's emotions to exceed his ability to hold them back anymore.

"It's just been a really bad day, Mr. Stark. I'm sorry."

"Hey. It's alright. Everybody has bad days. Why don't you tell me about it? Might make you feel better."

Looking sheepishly towards his mentor he took a moment to consider the offer. "I, uh...might cry...", he admitted as a blush rushed to his cheeks. 

"That's fine too.", Tony said with a nod of his head as he squeezed the boy into his side a bit more tightly. 

Taking a deep breath, Peter started from the top. "Well, it started when I woke up late. That, that always throws me off and I ended up missing my train so then I was late for school too. When I got to class partners had already been assigned and I ended up having to join a group with Flash--he's, well, he's kind of a jerk.", Peter began, pausing for only a moment to get a quick peek at his mentor. Confessing that he got picked on at school on a regular basis wasn't on his list of things he'd ever wanted the man to know but here they were... "He gave me a hard time which is normally something I can deal with but it's like he _wouldn't stop_ today. Then I had to eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch because May forgot to put money on my lunch account and I couldn't get her on the phone--"

"-- future reference you can call me. I'd be happy to put some money on your account.", Tony cut in, not wanting to miss the opportunity to remedy that situation. He couldn't stop him from being late or from getting teased but he could buy the kid some lunch no problem.

"O-okay but you don't have to do that Mr. Stark... I mean, Peanut butter sandwiches are fine. It's not like I didn't eat anything at all--"

Smiling at the way the boy sounded so cautious about accepting his offer to buy his school lunches, Tony decided to remind the kid that he knew exactly how much he needed to eat on a daily basis. "--You need to eat more than that and you know it, now go on, Kiddo, what else."

"Um... I got a D on the report I turned in last week. I wrote on the wrong topic. I guess, I misunderstood... I don't know. Then I found out that my favorite teacher is retiring next semester. Oh... and I dropped my phone. It's, it's broken now. I'll have to save up before I can get a new one. Sorry--", Peter uttered but as he attempted to apologize for being unreachable for a little while, Tony once again cut him off in his words.

"--I can replace it. I don't like you being without a phone.-- and no arguing about it.", Tony forcefully demanded when it looked like Peter was going to resist the offer. "We'll take care of it tonight. Anything else?"

Then next part had Peter feeling a little anxious so he ducked his head down and tried not to stutter too much. "Yeah, um, when Happy came tp pick me up I was really hungry so he bought me a, uh, snack but... I ended up dropping it on the floor. It sort of went everywhere. He, uh, he wasn't too happy about that part.", he mumbled because he knew Happy had every right to be mad about having a mess in his car, even if Peter did offer to clean it all up himself.

"He'll get over it.", Tony replied with a shrug of his shoulders. It didn't go unnoticed when Peter relaxed against him after those words.

Getting towards the end of the list, the promised tears started to cloud his vision and his voice began to waver. As it did so, Tony's hand inadvertently came up and started threading through the back of his hair and in turn, he leaned into the comforting motion. "Then when I started to fix my web-shooters the screwdriver slipped and I hurt my hand... and my head really did start hurting after lunch."

"Probably because you weren't eating enough. I'm glad we got dinner early."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark.", Peter tearfully returned even though he had no idea what he was actually apologizing for. Maybe for crying, he just wasn't sure.

"For what?", Tony asked with a small laugh of disbelief. _Only Peter would apologize for having a bad day._

Shaking his head and wiping his eyes again, Peter took another deep breath. "I, I don't know.", he replied before crying in earnest.

"Shh. You're alright. I'm sorry you're having such a lousy day, Kiddo.", The man whispered as Peter leaned on his shoulder and cried. "Let's just eat this pizza and watch our movie. Tomorrow will be better, yeah?"

"Yeah. Maybe.", Peter said through the lump in his throat as he attempted to demand that his body stop the emotional overreaction.

When Peter yawned and sat up to scrub his face with his hands, Tony sighed. "You look beat. You want to stay the night here?", he offered with a smile. The kid had never stayed there overnight before but now seemed like a good time to bring it up. He could use the company and maybe Peter could use a good night in... plus they would mean that they could get back to the workshop after the awful day had passed and Peter was ready to work again. 

"That would be really awesome, Mr. Stark. Are you sure it's okay?", Peter asked in surprise because somehow his bad day was turning into a much, much better night.

"Of course I'm sure.", Tony said with a smile and a nudge to the kid's shoulder. "Now eat. I don't want to see any leftovers."

"That won't be a problem. I promise.", Peter said as he started into another slice of pizza. He'd not eaten near enough for the day and they both knew it. Tony wasn't likely to let him get away with any less than five slices.

"I'm counting on that.", Tony said as he piled another piece onto the boy's plate before getting one of his own.

Once the second movie was over and Peter was still settled deeply into his side, Tony looked down towards him. "Feeling any better?", he asked while wondering when he became okay with someone insisting on sitting so close to him. He was pretty sure anyone else, save for maybe Pepper, who had tried to practically cuddle him would get shoved out the front door.

"Mm-hmm. Just tired.", Peter admitted with a slight blush. It was only eleven, he'd been known to stay up much later than that as Spider-man but the day's emotions were having their effect on him and he was more than ready to sleep it off. 

"Sounds like it's spider bedtime then.", Tony teased before showing Peter to the guest room and bringing him some clean clothes to put on in the morning. "Good-night, Kiddo. Get some sleep, Tomorrow is going to be so much better, you'll see."

"It's already getting better, Mr. Stark. I got to hang out with all night watching movies ...and tomorrow is going to be even better than that because I get to _start the day_ with you.", Peter honestly spoke leaving Tony to stare at him with a look of fondness and care.

"I'm glad to hear it, Buddy. I'll see you in the morning.", Tony whispered before walking back down the hall still smiling stupidly at the boy's words. Then shaking his head to clear all of the decidedly mushy thoughts that were running through it he laughed to himself. The kid was definitely growing on him, he was getting attached and that was perfectly fine with that.


End file.
